


Unimaginable

by flordecai



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, I'm warning you now- there is no happiness, Multi, Suffering, there are moments where the words don't reach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 03:59:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18024248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flordecai/pseuds/flordecai
Summary: Team JNPR deals with the unimaginable and the fallout afterwards.





	Unimaginable

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this while listening to "It's Quiet Uptown" from Hamilton, so if you wanna suffer even more than you already will then read it while that song is playing.

  _ **[There are moments where the words don't reach...]**_

The grim were everywhere, their howls and snarling echoing from the crumbling buildings. Lie Ren had never seen this many in one place before, even when his village was destroyed. It was infested with the monsters, making it difficult to make any sort of impact on the number that swarmed Beacon Academy and surrounding Vale. Any normal person would have been overwhelmed and on their way to the nearest transport- and Ren couldn't blame any person who reacted like that, even he wanted to turn tail. But he couldn't responsibly retreat, not when Pyrrha and Jaune were still missing, not while team RWBY was still scattered to the winds.

_Why do they always end up being split up all the time..._ Ren thought, shaking his head as he hooked his blade into an ursa, hearing the crack of bone as the thing howled in pain. A quick pull of the trigger and the beast died, fading into black dust while he whipped his head around to take in his surroundings. Nothing major had changed since the ursa had attacked him, but that was not entirely a good thing- Beowolves were crawling up the buildings, Ursai were out numbering his fellow Beacon classmates and Nora was... no where to be found. Panic began flooding his mind as he searched for her, feeling his breathing become erratic- Nora could _not_  be missing too, he couldn't accept that. 

Stopping short of a rampaging Ursa, Ren sucked in a deep breath, using his semblance. Nora had once said that when he used his semblance on her it felt like warm bath water was pouring down her and eventually filling her entire being. But whenever he used it on himself, he saw his father teaching him meditation- he heard his voice clear as day, reminding him to concentrate on his breathing, his posture, his thoughts. Ren never liked to use his semblance, reserving it for emergencies only, and this moment most definitely qualified as an emergency. An emergency like Jaune panicking over an upcoming exam, like Nora sobbing from another late night nightmare, like when Pyrrha seemed unhinged before her solo fight that night- but she had softly refused Ren's offer of his semblance assistance, saying it was just nerves. In hindsight, Ren wished he had insisted on using it instead.

"Ren!" Sun, his blonde hair a disaster as he swooped next to him. "Pal you aren't lookin' so great." 

"I'm fine. Just taking a breather. Sun, have you seen-" 

"REEEEEEEN~!" Suddenly something collided into him like a ton of bricks, pushing him onto the ground behind him. 

"Nora..." He groaned, letting out a sigh of relief- and pain- as he wrapped his arms around her. "I was worried for a second."

"Awww ren-ren, you know I always land on my feet."

"Or on me."

"Cause you're reliable, ren-ren!" 

_**[There's suffering too terrible to name...]** _

"No... No way..." Nora's voice trembled. 

Ren felt as if someone had punched him in the gut and torn out his stomach.

"That... That can't be true..." She was starting to cry, he could tell by the way she was trying to talk tough, deepening her voice and coughing in between her words. He used to wondered where on earth she learn such a way to suppress the urge to cry, it had to have been from her scum bag step-father who played a prominent role in her nightmares. Ren swallowed hard, gently pulling her into his arms, silently holding her as tight as he could. Nora started to sob against his sleep shirt, her hands making fists in the fabric as she clung to him, her body suddenly so small compared to his own as it trembled from her sobs.

"I... I'm so sorry." Ironwood's voice was barely kept together, his face covered in scraps and a few small bruises. "I wish what I was telling you was not true, but it is. Your teammate, Pyrrha, has... She has died in combat."

It was only the three of them, Nora, Jaune and Ren, in a room in a local hotel that was letting students stay for free until they were either taken back to their kingdom or wherever home was for them. Ironwood's men had kept the area secure, but specifically they had kept Ruby and the last three of team JNPR sectioned off from the rest of the students. At first, Ren had speculated it was because, like Ruby, they had been at the center of the disaster and the adults wanted to allow them time to rest and heal before being around the general public. Now he knew better. It was to keep them from seeing or hearing something without being properly told alone.

"No." Jaune's voice breaks through Nora's sobbing, his voice as fragile as Ren imagines the guy is right now. Pyrrha and him were supposed to be celebrating their one month anniversary that day.... 

"Jaune-" Ironwood tries to explain it to the blonde but is cut off quickly.

"No. No, she-she can't be. She-" Jaune is starting to break, tears beginning to slid down his face. "She's _Pyrrha_ , Pyrrha Nikos. She... She can't be dead... No freakin' way..." 

"Jaune..." It's instinctual, something Ren couldn't hold back. He's reached over and taken the other's hand. "C'mere..." Its not a request, but a gentle demand, a need.

"She... She's Pyrrha..."

"Yeah... I know..." Jaune steps towards Nora and him. She looks up at him, her eyes red from her crying, before pulling him into the group hug. 

They don't know what else to do, they never had any kind of training or lessons on how to grieve. For the first time since they came to Beacon Academy, they felt so very young and unprotected. Pyrrha had been more than a friend. She had been apart of the team and seemed to fit the role so naturally, it was like drawing breath. While Jaune had been scrambling to be what he thought was the perfect team leader, Pyrrha had supported him from the beginning. She had believed in the team and their ability to succeed without any doubts. She had been the heart of the team, and now that that heart had been ripped from them and it was getting so very hard to breath right.

_**[You hold your child as tight as you can...]** _

Ren had gotten up to get some tea, finding it difficult to sleep since their private conversation with Ironwood. Sure, it had been a few weeks, but it still was all so fresh and sensitive. It kept him up at night, unable to get any where close to sleep without using his semblance, which he wanted to avoid using as often as he wanted. 

As he stood waiting for the water to boil, he looked around the rather small kitchen area, the darkness only broken by the faint gleam of the washing machine controls and the flame that was heating the kettle. Sighing, he looked across the hall, to where a lounge area was set up for people of the floor to relax and converse had anyone been up. While each floor had a small kitchen, not every floor had a large lounge area like this one. And since this floor was the top floor, the lounge had large glass double doors and windows, opening out to a small terrace. The furniture had been stored away for the night, leaving it spacious- and the perfect area for one to practice sparing, which was exactly what he saw Jaune doing. 

Smiling to himself, Ren shook his head before pulling out a second mug, pouring some of the hot water into both cups and placing them on a circular tray. Once settled, he quietly carried the tray out to the terrace, stopping when he heard a familiar voice coming from Jaune's phone.

"Ooookay, assuming you aren't _cheating_ , we can take a break-" Her voice, mixed with laughter she is so clearly trying to push down while recording the video for Jaune's sake. It's as if she's alive again, like she's just video chatting while on a mission. 

Jaune noticed Ren there and walked over to the phone quickly, hitting the pause button but not putting his shield and sword down.

"Hey..." Ren offered, holding up the tray. "Some tea?"

"No thanks..."

"Jaune-"

"I know, I should delete it. I just... I still need to train and she was the best so I-"

"No, that's not what I was going to say. I..." He took a deep breath, deciding to sit on the ground. "We're all trying to grieve in our own ways and I don't think deleting Pyrrha from everywhere in our lives will help us in anyway."

"So... I... can keep the video...?"

"I think you should keep it. She made it for you to train with, right?" Ren smile at the other, holding up a cup of tea for him. "She wanted you to use it, even if she wasn't with you. She would have liked to see this. And she'd say your left foot is too far back."

"Oh very funny." Jaune huffed, collapsing his shield and sliding his sword into the sheath it created.

"Hey I just tell it like it is."

A silence fell over them as they drank their tea, the sounds of crickets and the soft hum of aircraft of the nearby transports the only thing they heard. A howl in the distance, probably from a beowolf or an ursa just outside of the safety zone.

"Do you remember when we were supposed to go on our first mission?" Jaune's voice is soft, his eyes staring up at the crumbling moon.

"Mhhmm..."

"The night before, Pyrrha had been training with me until like... crazy hours. I could hardly stay awake enough to get back to our dorm, but it was worth it." He laughed, taking a sip of the tea, his eyes still on the sky. "She kept sayin 'Jaune, I _know_  you have this in you- don't give up!' and stuff like that, even when I kept saying I couldn't keep going. But she wouldn't hear it, she'd just keep telling me I could do it, that I _could_  block her javelin, that I _could_  parry anything she threw at me. And she was right, I could. And then, of all the times, our mission gets delayed because grimm are attacking Vale and for the first time ever I actually was able to block an ursa- an  _ursa."_

"The first time we ran into an ursa it chucked you across a forest." Ren points out, earning a laugh from Jaune.

"Exactly! But after training and pushing, just like Pyrrha said, I was able to actually block one. Only for another ursa to catch me off guard."

"Lucky you have Nora and I."

"Do I?" Jaune's voice is small, his face suddenly serious and still looking at the sky when Ren looks back at him.

"Of course, why wouldn't you have us?"

"We had Pyrrha, now we don't." He looks down at his mug, clenching it in his hands. "What if... What if this breaks us up, Ren? I wasn't much of a leader before and now this... I... I don't know how to keep us all together... It.... I don't know..."

Ren feels his chest tighten painfully, looking up at the sky, eyes finding a constellation just on the horizon. With the fall of the tower at Beacon electricity and any wireless communication began to dwindle and fade out, making it easier to spot the stars at any time of the night. It reminded him of home, where there were no large light posts, no skyscrapers with office lights on all night, nothing except for lanterns after the sun set.

"Jaune..." He took a deep breath, reaching over to gently pat the other's head. "Can I tell you a fairytale of sorts?"

"I may be the most immature but I really don't think a fairytale is gonna-"

"It's one my mother used to tell me whenever someone in the village would get sick and pass away." Ren murmured softly, looking at Jaune, seriousness carried in his tone and expression. 

"S-sure..." He whispered, stunned into silence. It was no secret to him or even team RWBY that Ren and Nora never spoke of their home. Or their parents. Or where they met. It was like the two were sworn to secrecy against the rest of the world. So Ren openly offering a piece of his childhood on a silver plate, no strings or qualifications, was a rare feat.

"Once upon a time, there was an old emperor. He had ruled over his kingdom for close to a century and was adored by his people. However, one day, he fell ill. As he lay in bed, he saw Death sitting at the foot of his bed. 'Oh Death,' he begged, holding clasped hands out towards him. 'I beg of you- do not take me yet.' But Death silently shook his head, waving next to him, where a door appeared with the emperor's name written on it.

'But I beg of you- please, be merciful! I have yet to say my final good byes. My children, what will they do without me to guide them in their lives?'

Again, Death shook his head without a word, motioning to the door. Without any other option available, the emperor rose, seeing his body lay perfectly motionless in the bed. The terror of the sight was short lived as he was pulled to the large door with his name written on it. 

'Death, what awaits me on the other side of this door? Please, offer me some kind of comfort.' The old emperor pleaded, unfolding his hands to beg for Death in desperation. After a moment of consideration, Death gave his reply.

'I will give you a valuable gift before you move on to your afterlife.' Death's voice was barely audible as he waved the door away, motioning for the emperor to follow. 'Follow, I will show you this gift.'

Death lead him to the room where his daughter and three sons were sitting with their families, awaiting word from the royal physician.  The old emperor smiled as he watched his children comforting their mother and each other. 

'Things will be alright,' one son told his sister, an arm around her shoulders. 'No matter what happens, we will all be together.'

'It is what Father would have wanted.' Another son pipped up, holding his mother's hand along with his older brother.

'No matter what comes along, family is what matters the most.' The eldest agreed. Death turned to the old emperor, waving to the scene before them.

'My gift to you is this- your children and their children remain together, they do not fight over your lands or your throne. Your wife will grow old still thinking of you until her last breath. The lessons you taught them remained long after your death.' With this, Death brought the door with the emperor's name on it, motioning forward. 'Now, you have your precious gift, it is time.'

The emperor obeyed Death, walking to the door and placing his hand on the handle, turning to watch his family one more time. Before opening the door, he smiled to his dear children and loving wife. For nothing gives the spirits of those who have passed on more comfort than their loved remaining as one, even when tragedy strikes." 

Ren looked down at his tea, taking a sip before looking up at the sky, pointing to the north star.

"And it is said that the gods placed the old emperor in the sky as the brightest star, so he could watch over his family to ensure they remained together, no matter what harm comes their way. Mother used to tell me that the smaller stars were any person who died, watching over their families from the heavens. So I think... no matter where we go, Pyrrha's always watching us do our best and cheering us on from the sky."

"You really think so?" Jaune asked softly, looking up to the stars, eyes serious as he searched the sky aimlessly.

"I know so." Ren whispered, moving to wrap an arm around the other's shoulders. "Pyrrha was more than just a teammate. To you, she was your lover, to us she was a sister- but we were all bonded so closely, I... don't even know what we would call such a bond, but I know for certain that not even Death himself could severe our bond."

"You know, she was pretty freakin amazing, huh?" He's leaning into Ren, staring up at the sky before pulling back to  stretch. "I... I want to get stronger, so we never lose anybody ever again."

"We'll get there, promise." The moment dies and he collects the tea cups, looking over at Jaune, feeling unsettled. Before, when they had been dating briefly, Jaune had been much more open about how he was feeling. Sometimes he had been a bit _too_  open about how he was feeling, but Ren hadn't ever wanted it any other way. Jaune talking meant things were okay.

"Thanks for the tea, Ren. I'll... see you for breakfast tomorrow." Somehow, he sounded reserved, like he was holding back.

"Good night, please try to get some sleep tonight..."

"Yeah yeah, Mama Ren." He tapped his phone, bringing the screen to life and starting the video of Pyrrha over again, taking a stance with his back to his teammate.

Ren felt like whatever small distance had been between them before had opened into a large, bottomless cavern. And he didn't see anyway to stop it from widening. He was powerless to stop what had been set into motion, and he was absolutely terrified.

**_[And push away the unimaginable...]_ **


End file.
